Hello friends of Parliament! It's spring, we're feeling the creative energies flowing, and we are so stoked to share with you about our upcoming participation in Me Made May 2017. As makers of Parliament, we are passionate not only about creating handcrafted goods, but also empowering others to learn the process for themselves. Thus, we couldn't be more excited to bringing an amazing batch of workshops to our space for the month of May, all centered around creating your own goods for a more sustainable wardrobe and lifestyle! We will be offering the following workshops and events during the next month:

5/19: Make Your Own Crop-Top w/ Littlewings Designs, 5:30PM-8:30PM- Learn to draft and sew your own crop-top shirt with Elyse of Littlewings Designs. Participants will bring a comfy structured button up or other cotton shirt from their own wardrobe and learn to use this as a basis to create another garment, and will leave with a completed crop-top shirt.

What is Me Made May? Me Made May was started in 2010 by Zoe of the Blog "So Zo, What do Ya Know?", a sewing blog dedicated to Zoe's process of making clothing for herself and her family. She shares patterns, tricks, tutorials, and in 2010 started Me Made May as a challenge to herself to wear something she had created everyday of the month! She wrote about her goal on her blog, and the idea was met with great enthusiasm from the DIY and Sewing communities; fast forward to 2017, and it is now a Instagram phenomenon and network of its own, connecting rad folks across the globe who make their own clothes during the month of May using the hashtags #memademay and #mmmay17. It has also evolved and grown to include considerations about slow-fashion, who makes your clothes and just how much time goes into them, sustainable living through a handmade wardrobe, and the impact of choosing to buy locally handmade goods from others.

For us at Parliament, making our own wardrobe is one of the side-passions amongst all of us makers. Both Elyse and Megan got their start with handcrafted in sewing clothes for themselves, and have been long-time users of open-source patterns such as BurdaStyle.com, have been drafting patterns for their own clothes for many years, and regularly make their own clothes still, for fun! Plus, they both have professional experience: Elyse minored in Fashion with her Accessory Design BFA from SCAD, and Megan works as a professional seamstress for local makers Conscious Clothing, an organic clothing company who we're proud to be hosting for First Friday in May to kick off our month of programming! Thus, we knew that in this new space where hosting workshops was such a blast, that we wanted to bring together a series of programming in honor of this fun month, and celebrating the handcrafted wardrobe.

Participation in Me Made May is simple; you make a pledge that for the month of May, you will meet some goal regarding your handmade wardrobe and lifestyle. You may post this on your social media, and Zoe asks that you comment on her blog-post here with your goal, so that we can all support each other in our goals. This goal can be simple or complex- it's up to you! You may be a brand-new sewer who wants to make a shirt for the first time, and signing up for our Crop-Top Workshop may be just the goal for you! Or, you may be a seasoned sew-ist, and make it a goal to wear a different "Me Made" item from your wardrobe every day of the month. Many participants like to share their journey on social media, and connect with other makers using the hashtags- we'll be sharing our own "Makes" and workshops on our Instagram and Facebook pages, and would love to have you follow along; we'll be using the hashtag #memademayParliament along with the official hashtags of #memademay and #mmmay17. Comment here too with your pledge! Ours is as follows, pulled from the format on the Me Made May Website:

We, Team Parliament @parliamenttheboutique, sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May '17. We endeavor to create a space of support and community around achieving handmade wardrobe goals through workshops and events, for the duration of Me-Made-May '17. We also pledge to share our journey and adventures along the way!

You can make your own pledge using the following format, and comment below to share with us! 'I, (insert name here and blog address/instagram handle if you have one), sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May '17. I endeavour to wear......................................................... each day for the duration of May 2017'

We are thrilled be able to support our creative community this Me-Made-May, and hope you will join us at the shop for a workshop or two! Sign-up for classes on our website here, or stop into the shop in person to reserve seats!

Gemini Handmade

Artisan leather, textiles, and practical goods. Found at Parliament the Boutique, crafted at Parliament the Studio. Home of Littlewings Designs, Harbinger Leather Design, and Adventure Textiles. Proudly crafted in Grand Rapids, MI, from our hands to yours.

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